This holiday weekend, tens of thousands will flock to a sport that cheerfully defies the age we live in. No one in point-to-point racing is motivated by money. Jockeys ride for nothing, owners race horses for small change and the meetings, usually staged with the most rudimentary facilities, are

Tony McCoy said yesterday that he is “very likely” to choose Shutthefrontdoor as his final Crabbie’s Grand National mount. He also ruled out extending his farewell tour into the Punchestown Festival and revealed he will take his final ride at Sandown Park on April 25, unless National victory

Ascot in June is where Sheikh Mohammed will seek public endorsement of his rebuilt racing team but they are to face a familiar foe. California Chrome, beaten into second by a Godolphin outsider in the Dubai World Cup on Saturday, is to bring a touch of stateside glamour to the Prince of Wales’s

Joseph O’Brien has long acknowledged that weight issues will eventually oblige him to switch from Flat to jump racing and that day comes a step closer tomorrow when he takes his first ride over hurdles at Limerick. Even at 21, O’Brien has already lasted longer on the Flat than many expected

Late in 2012, Marcus Tregoning faced a career crossroads. It was not the first of his peripatetic life in racing but, at 53, he was conscious it might be the last. “Either I had to move, and start all over again, or quit training and do something else,” he said. “At the time, I think everyone

The Second World War had yet to break out when Bruce Hobbs rode the Grand National winner at the age of 17. It has never happened again to one so young but such has been the impact made by Sean Bowen this season that few would be surprised if he emulated Hobbs at Aintree a fortnight tomorrow.

Harry Fry is confident that his Dorset yard will shake off a troublesome virus before the Grand National meeting at Aintree, where Rock On Ruby will spearhead his team in a grade one contest missing Britain’s leading hurdler, The New One. While Fry was outlining optimistic plans at Newton Abbot